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Blackhawk Vol 1 17
** ** ** ** ** ** ** Antagonists: * Wilson, a pirate submarine commander * Wilson's knife-wielding girlfriend ** Wilson's pirate submarine crew Locations: * * Tornado Bay Items: * a locket from Chuck's late mother Vehicles: * copra freighter "Island Belle", the "Black Swan," the "Lolly Malone," and the "Cobra Queen", all missing * s * Wilson's salvaged Japanese submarine | Writer2_1 = | Penciler2_1 = Bill Ward | Inker2_1 = Bill Ward | StoryTitle2 = The Magic of the Shaman | Synopsis2 = Between adventures, the Blackhawk Squadron lands at North City for 24 hours of R&R. Their pursuits are interrupted by three hansom cab drivers who seek out the pilots and reassemble them at the Hotel Pierre, but it turns out the coachmen have been sent by the squadron's old associate Fear, who now begs the team to help her fight the "Black Curse of North City," placed on the city's white conquerors by the old gods of the subjugated natives, back in settlement days, which killed a series of early governors and now has killed two recent ones. She is interrupted by The Shaman, chief of the native population, who barges into the conference room and demands to be made Governor himself. Olaf moves to throw him out but is surpisingly outwrestled and thrown by the much smaller, older man, who makes some threats and leaves. Blackhawk then finds a listening device in the room, explaining the Shaman's uncanny timing. Blackhawk and Fear go visit the Governor, and find him in a meeting with The Shaman and two henchmen, who are making unsubtle threats. They leave, and the worried Governor exposits that his two predecessors have both vanished, with their homes wrecked as if by earthquakes, and this seems somehow familiar to Blackhawk. Blackhawk and Fear next go to The Shaman's base, in an old, ruined, stone fort in the hills beyond town, where they arrive, on foot, hours later at dusk. The Shaman throws a highly explosive Thimble Of Death at them from an upstairs window; it knocks down part of an outer stone wall on top of Blackhawk and Fear; then the Shaman and at least four henchmen pile wood on the stone heap and set it alight, and return to their council. By sheer grit and stamina, and while sheltering Fear from the shifting, burning mass of stone and wood, Blackhawk digs free and gets them both to safety. Back in town at the Hotel Pierre, Blackhawk deduces that the high yield of the tiny explosive indicates atomic power, and that therefore the Shaman has access to a uranium deposit somewhere in the district. A direct attack against The Shaman's atomic-armed gang would be ill-advised, so Chop Chop proposes to use trickery to persuade the Shaman's followers that the Shaman's magic is weak and foolish. Chop Chop accosts a native passerby, declares his disrespect for The Shaman's magic, boasts of his own, snatches the top-hat off the guy's head, and pulls a rabbit out of it. This completely terrifies the guy, who sprints away, without once looking back, and flees out of town to a cave, pursued on foot by the whole BH team plus Miss Fear. The cave turns out to be an entrance to an old dungeon of the ruined fort, and in the connecting tunnel the runaway native is intercepted and stabbed to death by The Shaman, for having stupidly led his enemies to his house. This tunnel is rigged with heavy steel portcullises in the ceiling, and The Shaman drops one behind all eight interlopers, then drops a second gate to isolate Fear from the seven Blackhawks, alone in the same room with himself, and tries to woo her into changing sides. She plays up to this and distracts him completely, while all seven Blackhawks throw their weight into bending one of the mechanical gate's bars, then they slither thru the opening and Olaf tackles the Shaman before he can reach his stash of mini-bombs, the Thimbles Of Death. Using a common thimble and some deft sleight-of-hand, Chop Chop then fools The Shaman into revealing the technique for arming the bomblets, and Blackhawk then uses one of them to blow out both of the steel gratings, unblocking the tunnel. The Shaman's cult mutinies: "The Shaman led us by lies! We see his weakness --- we promise to abide by just laws in the future!" Soon North City is free of terror and an important uranium deposit is in the proper hands. At the wrap-up meeting, Miss Fear is hanging on Blackhawk's arm with both hands. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * the Shaman Other Characters: * the Governor of North City Locations: * North City Items: * Thimbles of Death Vehicles: * Blackhawk s | Writer3_1 = | Penciler3_1 = Bill Ward | Inker3_1 = Bill Ward | StoryTitle3 = Chop Chop: "The Emperor's Jewels" | Synopsis3 = In the theater district of a large city, Chop Chop outsmarts and defeats some common crooks. | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * Kip, thug * other thug Other Characters: * Tom Wun, actor * other actors * stage crew Locations: * big U.S. city Items: * fake jeweled crown | Writer4_1 = | Penciler4_1 = Bill Ward | Inker4_1 = Bill Ward | StoryTitle4 = King For a Day | Synopsis4 = On the little-known island of Jombore, Queen Mokina divorces her husband and commands that his head be chopped off, with him begging and snivelling for mercy the whole time. She then commands her main servant to search the island until he finds a man worthy to be her new king. Meanwhile overhead, Blackhawk develops engine trouble (a gas line clog), tells the others to head back to Blackhawk Island, and lands on the north side of Jombore to make repairs; Chop Chop as usual is riding in the back seat. Halfway thru the repair job, Blackhawk and Chop Chop are attacked by four or more spear-wielding warriors; the ensuing fistfight goes pretty well until Blackhawk gets headkonked with a heavy club, then he and Chop Chop are captured, and dragged in front of the Queen. Mokina is immediately smitten with Blackhawk's appearance and demeanor, and she proposes marriage; he declines. While Mokina's headsman is grabbing Blackhawk, another warrior runs in with news that airplanes are approaching; Blackhawk and Chop Chop briefly break loose from the Queen's guards, the fistfight goes back and forth briefly, with Blackhawk getting a second hard headkonk but still beating down the main goon, which greatly impresses Queen Mokina, who again proposes marriage and again is rebuffed. Meanwhile the five other Blackhawks land on Jombore and find Blackhawk's Skyrocket, then are set upon by an estimated 50 warriors, who escort them back to the Queen's compound. Mokina extorts Blackhawk into marrying her by threatening to execute his team; he accepts; she flings herself onto him, then primly takes a seat, and the prisoners are brought in and told the situation. Then a completely random interloper appears at the window, proclaims Hakdar to be king, and throws a knife at Blackhawk, which barely misses. Olaf tackles this nut, who turns out to be a follower of Hakdar, a rebellious ex-husband and rival claimaint to Mokina's throne. Blackhawk decides to take his pilots into the jungle and find this Hakdar's mountain hideout, capture him, and bring him back to face Mokina's justice, plus persuades her that this is a good plan, and that night the Blackhawks sally forth to carry it out. Over the next few hours, they find and infiltrate Hakdar's mountain hideout, locate and identify him, sneak him out of there past his guards, and bring him back to Mokina's compound, but along the way Hakdar and Blackhawk have a conversation and reach an understanding. Back at Mokina's place, Blackhawk proposes, instead of a simple execution, to destroy Hakdar in a battle to the death. Mokina agrees to this; Blackhawk throws the fight; Hakdar proclaims himself king and orders the Blackhawks to leave the island immediately, on pain of death. Mokina goes along with all of this, having fallen in love all over again with Hakdar. The Blackhawks leave quickly, speculating about the stormy future facing those two lovebirds and glad to be on their way. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Antagonists: * Queen Mokina * King Hakdar Other Characters * Jomborean people Locations: * , a little-known island with no good harbors Vehicles: * s | Notes = * In The Quest For Chuck's Father, Tornado Bay is near lat 44, long 19, an area known for wicked storms. According to LATLONG.NET: ** "44, 019" = in Bosnia Herzegovina, near no coast. ** "44, -019" = in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, due west of the northwestern coast of Spain, near no continental coast, sort of near the Canary Islands. ** "-44, -019" = in the center of the southern Atlantic Ocean about midway between Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope, near no continental coast and no large islands. ** "-44, 019" = due south of South Africa, not near the coast, not near any large islands. ** "Tornado Bay" may be part of an island or group of islands. ** Quality Universe geography may be very different from Real World geography. * Also in the 1st story, Chuck gets head-konked unconscious, for possibly the first time ever, and Blackhawk receives his twenty-first blunt instrument head trauma. , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , twice in , , and * In The Emperor's Jewels, Chop Chop gets head-konked unconscious, for the fourth time, , , , & with a blackjack. * In King for a Day, Blackhawk gets two more hard head-konks, but only blacks out once. These are his twenty-second and twenty-third cranial concussions. * Also featured in this issue of Blackhawk was: ** Blackhawk: "Of Men and Murder" (text story) | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Blackhawk #17, Winter 1947 }}